Web Producers

[The Big Glee Bopper]

On Mon, 4 Dec 1995, Joe Schallan wrote:

> The Big Glee Bopper wrote:
> 
> >The reason most web sites are almost unbearable in terms of
> >enjoyable experience is because they a build by programmers and librarians
> >who are _not_ also artists.
> 
> You give people the tools, and suddenly everyone thinks he or she is a
> graphic artist.  The current situation is analogous to that time about
> ten years ago when you suddenly could produce all manner of typefaces
> and fonts on your computer.  Remember those letters you'd get -- the ones
> using twelve different faces and several fonts of each, including outline and
> shadow?

Joe, I didn't suggest giving anyone tools. I suggested hiring _artists_. 
I promise you that just because you have a page layout program, you are 
not a graphic designer! Graphic designers do not use 12 different type 
faces, people who have page layout programs and no training do: 
librarians, programmers, etc. 

Now if the librarian or programmer also are graphic design artists ...

> >There are two illusions in _information science_ the first is that this 
> >is all about _information_ when it is probably more about _communication_. 
> 
> I recall some statement to the effect that the train business died because
> the New York Central, the Pennsy, the Erie, et al., thought they were in the
> railroad business when in fact they were in the transportation business.
> Librarians think they are in the information business when in fact . . .

This is slightly twisted version of Tom Peters story on Ice haulers at 
the turn of the century who thought their job was to deliver ice. Most of 
these folks went out of business. The folks who realized that their job 
was to preserve food are still in business.

--Thom